Saga of the Bridgers-Year 7

Epilogue: Final Dawn

December 16, 2227.

Nembrek made a very good job with his reportage, and even if his boss ordered him to downplay the participation of the Jedi and the New Republic to the operation on Myrkr, the story had sent shock-waves all across the galaxy, both good and bad.

The uncovering of the facility, of the horrible conditions in which the children were kept, of what horrifying experiments they were being subjected to and, sadly, even a few who had not resisted and had been buried or left to the Vornskr, had stirred up a wave of indignation across the galaxy. Most of the Consortium's power came from their relative support from the local populations, but now that support had been dealt a severe blow.

The best part was that Iulius' popularity had skyrocketed among the people of the Mid Rim. Now more than ever his title of 'Lord-Protector' felt deserved and appropriate, as it had been showed by the shower of applause that had welcomed him back to Naboo.

All the imperial captives whose families could be reached had been returned to their homes but also put under a protection program so that the Consortium would have a hard time trying to replicate their project.

As for those who had been orphaned, they had been given shelter into a special facility built on Naboo, for Galen Marek had made an interesting suggestion: he would train them to use the Force for some hours every day, hoping that they would join the military when they would come of age. It was like an imperial version of the Jedi academy, though this one didn't intend to train fully-fledged Force-users, but only help them to control their abilities for self-defense and to integrate better into society.

The brief time he had spent with Darvos had made Iulius starting to question many things, though, and Namedra could easily read it on his face as they went through various reports in his office.

"Still thinking about Myrkr?" she asked.

Iulius nodded slowly, then sighed. "It's just...does this war really need to go on? Isn't there enough room in the galaxy for both the Empire and the nations that now exist in the Outer Rim? Even if we reconquer them, they would still hate us."

Namedra didn't feel comfortable in entertaining such a conversation, but her face expressed the same concern.

Yet, a month had passed, and it wasn't like the brief truce for the operation on Myrkr had changed anything. In fact, Iulius had been recalled to Coruscant to explain why he had done that, and the elite of the Empire clearly was looking forward to this chance to finally drag him into the mud.

Only the incredible popularity he had achieved, reinforced by the large crowd of people that had welcomed him on the capital planet had convinced the politicians to actually allow him to justify himself. After that, they couldn't deny that, had he not reached out the New Republic and the Jedi, both groups would have most likely ended up getting into each other's way and the imperial children would have never been recovered, and the Consortium might have been able to escape with enough resources to continue developing their Force clones.

They had let him go, eventually, though Iulius couldn't shake out the feeling that the higher echelons were preparing something to punish him with for doing what they saw as nothing less than pure treason.

The comlink buzzed and he replied. His mother's voice came in.

"Iulius...Lord Vader's ship is in orbit. He just announced a visit." she said with a hint of fear.

Fear that quickly expanded to the other two. What could Vader want so out of the blue? Still, they gathered their courage and he replied. "Understood. Tell Cody to prepare the welcoming guard."